Vol 83 Issue 13

Rev. VanBaren is a minister emeritus in the Protestant Reformed Churches. Winning One for the Lord? Sunday, February 4, 2007 was “Super Bowl Sunday.” It is considered by many to be the greatest, most important sporting event of the year in the United States. Millions watch. Some, doubtlessly, stayed home from services in church to see the great game on TV. One can easily guess that some Christians managed to get the expensive tickets to see the game in person. Many churches too would make use of the game as another “evangelical tool”—in an attempt to “become all things to...

Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Mission Activities  Our denomination’s missionary to the PR Fellowship in Pittsburgh, PA, Rev. W. Bruinsma, along with his wife, Mary, traveled to Grand Rapids, MI in late February. While there Rev. Bruinsma met with the Council of the Southwest PRC, the calling church for the work in Pittsburgh, to give them a personal update on his work in Pennsylvania. Rev. and Mary also attended the annual Southwest Potluck on February 23 and provided the after-dinner entertainment when they gave a PowerPoint presentation of the work on the...

Rev. Eriks is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. Are you growing spiritually? Are you growing in your resistance of sin? Are you growing in faith so that more and more you are trusting in God? These questions are so important that elders often will ask them at family visitation. Even if they don’t ask the questions, this is one of their chief concerns, because they are responsible to care for your souls. Faithful husbands and fathers are concerned with the spiritual growth of their wife and children. As an individual, you should be asking yourself if...

Prof. Hanko is professor emeritus of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Previous article in this series: March 1, 2007, p. 249. Introduction  The doctrine of the covenant in post-Reformation thought never quite got off on the right foot. From the beginning of its development in Switzerland, by Zwingli and Bullinger in their battle against the Anabaptists, the covenant was defined in terms of a compact or agreement between God and man. This serious misunderstanding of the covenant, in connection with the emerging doctrine of the federal headship of Adam in his relation to the human...

Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Previous article in this series: February 15, 2007, p. 223.   The Canons on Covenant and Election (part two) The Confirming of the Covenant by a “Limited Atonement”  The second statement in the Canons that explicitly relates covenant and election is Canons, II/8. For this was the sovereign counsel and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of His Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift...

Rev. Langerak is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Spring reminds us of gardens. It is when we bury seed in warm fertile soil, anticipate the arrival of burgeoning sprouts, and tend fledgling plants as they make their way toward the sun. It is also the season of Lent, when we meditate upon the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, events in which two gardens figured prominently, and were made necessary by what occurred in a third garden long before. A garden is a plot of ground set aside for the cultivation of plants grown for...

Mrs. Miersma is the wife of Rev. Thomas Miersma, missionary in Spokane, Washington. Royal children are children of the Word, children who must develop in their abilities to listen and speak and to read and write with understanding. Since they are stewards of the abilities and talents that their heavenly Father has given them, we as parents and teachers will encourage the development of their talents with a view to serving our Father King. We wrote of talents, not so much with an eye to differences of natural endowment, but from the perspective of abilities that, though they vary, we...

Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Randolph, Wisconsin. Previous article in this series: February 1, 2007, p. 210. The room in which deacons’ meetings are held does not have an observers’ gallery. Unlike most sessions of the meetings of the church’s broader assemblies, the public is not welcome to observe deacons’ meetings—or consistory meetings, for that matter. The reason for this is not that the congregation may know nothing about the deacons’ work. The deacons do well to inform the congregation of the work they are doing, withholding any names and details pertaining to specific cases....

Rev. A. Brummel’s Guest Article “Bringing Forth Children in an Age of Selfishness” in the February 15, 2007 issue of theSB prompted me to write a few comments about the article. I appreciated the encouragement that we all need to hear today concerning the blessedness of children. We also need to hear and heed the warning against the selfishness that is so often displayed concerning children in this wicked age of affluence. But, in the process of condemning an attitude of indifference towards children and in condemning an attitude that children are undesirable, let us not change the meaning of marriage....

Previous article in this series: March 15, 2007, p. 268. The essence of a conditional covenant is that it is an agreement or an arrangement between God and man in which God comes to man with a promise and a demand (or a threat). God promises to give to man salvation from sin and eternal life. At the same time, God demands fulfillment of certain conditions to the obtaining of the promise. Most often, the condition is said to be faith; not infrequently, obedience is added. It could be noted that the biblical doctrine of an unconditionalcovenant also maintains that God...